Wing of Pheasant or Blue red Hackle - Cow and Squirrel Tips.
Hi all, this is the first of the patterns with a wing option. Cutcliffe was not a fan of winged flies for rapid streams, yet he did realize that many anglers liked them and were not confident with hackle-only flies. So, to give those anglers something to fall back on as "comfort," he has several patterns with optional wings.
But how to tie the wing? There are no pictures in his book and there are no written instructions.
To figure it out, I first looked at Soltau's book from 1847 which is about fishing in Devonshire. There are no fly recipes and there are no instructions on tying the patterns but there are pictures. The pictures indicate a divided wing and at lease one somewhat upright. So is the wing matching slips or folded?
To try and answer that I could not find any Devonshire writing around this time...but there are several general British angling and tying books from the period. For this video I turn to Henry Wade's "Halycon" published in 1861 only two years before Cutcliffe. In the book he has images of the method along with written instructions for setting a folded and divided wing.
No 6 recipe
Silk: primrose or straw
Body: cow hair and squirrel tips (squirrel at this time from the UK would be the native Red Squirrel) a sub can be red fox or pine squirrel belly (red stuff). Rib: gold twist - here French oval twist
Wing option is pheasant OR hackled with a Blue red cock hackle.
Enjoy!
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